A Fire Warrior is a member of the T'au Fire Caste and thus serves as the primary infantry unit and the core combatant of the T'au Empire's multispecies armed forces. Fire Warriors are efficient, professional soldiers.
They are well-equipped,and their absolute belief in the Greater Good and their fanatical trust in the Ethereal Caste makes them deeply determined soldiers, grim in defence and aggressive on the attack.
History
What would become the Fire Caste before the unification of the T'au species were once ground-dwelling hunter-gatherers. They did not have the membranous wings of what would become the Air Caste, who were employed during the pre-T'au Empire period as messengers (very much like their contemporary forebears).
Racial progression saw these earth-dwellers build walled cities on the ground, while their racial cousins built fortresses and cities on high-altitude mesas and plateaus. However, an age of great suffering, the Mont'au, befell the T'au, sparking intraspecies wars, spreading disease, and unleashing famine upon the fledgling civilisation.
The intervention of the Ethereals, shrouded in myth and legend, unified the race by their unerring charisma, and all the sub-races of the T'au were given specific roles in society as part of a caste system, with the caste names reflecting the element of nature that best suited their nature and intended purpose.
Appearance
Fire Warriors are bred to be naturally more ferocious and aggressive than other caste members. They are more heavily muscled, stouter, and broader than their racial brethren. Fire Caste members are slightly shorter then the average Human, standing roughy 5'5" to 5'7". However their depth-perception is comparatively poorer than that of Humans, as is their reflexes, causing them to be comparatively poor melee fighters. An exception to this are the Fire Warriors of O'Shovah, who actively train in close-quarters combat, to prepare for conflicts with their hated enemies, the Orks.
Fire Warriors generally believe hand-to-hand fighting to be barbaric, and leave this role to their Kroot mercenaries, who are far more able than the T'au in the chaos that is melee combat. However, Fire Warrior's bonded by the ta'lissera brotherhood ritual are armed with ceremonial swords, despite these not being ideal for their preferred mode of combat.
Fire Warrior Strike Team
The Fire Warrior Strike Team is the most commonly deployed type of T'au Fire Warrior infantry team. A Fire Warrior Strike Team is a high-speed detachment of shock troops who lay down sheets of withering Pulse Rifle fire, throwing EMP Grenades and aiming powerful tactical support turrets at a rapidly-depleting foe.
Fire Warrior Breacher Team
The Breacher Team is another commonly deployed T'au Fire Warrior infantry team. The Breacher Team specialises in brutally effective close-range assaults, clearing enemy structures and fortified positions of threats in a tight, tactical formation and delivering sharp, shockingly sudden frontline displays of raw incendiary power that grind enemy soldiers into dust, discharging Pulse Blasters and hurling Photon Grenades until they are certain every path is clear.
Strategy
Historically, the T'au have not had the numbers to fight prolonged conflicts like the Imperium. The Kroot are currently the numeric mainstay of the T'au military forces, and their numbers allow the T'au to fight planetary battles where they would otherwise be limited to small-scale raids.
Fire Warrior commanders (shas'el and shas'o) are schooled in two military doctrines; Kauyon, or Way of the Patient Hunter, or Mont'ka, the Killing Blow. Shas'o are discouraged from using static defence or bloody direct assaults. In defence, the T'au abandon their position in favour of a more suitable one.
Shas'o who bitterly hold onto a position are frowned upon, and are considered to lack imagination by their peers. In attack, Shas'o attempt to draw the enemy from their defences, and then destroy components of the enemy one by one. Costly assaults are considered an unnecessary waste of life and resources, with the general idea that once the enemy is defeated only then should ground be taken.
Kauyon (Way of the Patient Hunter)
The Kauyon is the more methodical, patient method of neutralizing the enemies of the T'au Empire. This strategy employed by Cadres is similar to the way a T'au hunter traps and kills his prey. A unit is used as bait to lure the enemy into a well-prepared kill zone. When the enemy is brought into this zone, the trap is pounced from all sides. Battlesuits are used to flank the enemy, Kroot assault, and heavy weaponry is fired at tactically important targets.
Mont'ka (The Killing Blow)
The T'au strategy of the Mont'ka depends on aggressive troop movement and direct attacks on key tactical targets and is the more aggressive of the two T'au strategies. T'au Battlesuits, Fire Warriors mounted in Devilfish APCs and Hammerhead gunships are the key components for success when this strategy is adopted by T'au Hunter Cadres. This method is a highly mobile form of warfare, intended to knock the enemy off-balance in a quick and brutal fashion.
Rank Progression
A Fire Caste warrior starts his military career as a shas'saal, roughly equivalent to a cadet in Imperial military terms. After completing his training, the Fire Warrior becomes a Line Trooper, or shas'la. Passing a Trial by Fire is the only way for a Fire Warrior to increase his rank.
Shas'ui are veteran warriors, and act as sergeants or team leaders for Fire Warrior Teams. Sha'ui are granted the privilege of piloting a T'au Battlesuit. Fire Warriors of the rank of shas'vre serve as the bodyguards of the shas'el, the officers who serve as T'au battlefield commanders. They are proven battlesuit pilots and are loyal to their shas'el.
Shas'el are the field commanders of T'au units in combat, and direct the battle at a tactical as well as strategic level, making them equivalent to Astra Militarum colonels or regimental commanders.
Shas'o serve as the highest ranking military officers in the T'au Empire. They can be considered to be equivalent to Lord Generals in the Astra Militarum and entire Fire Warrior Hunter Cadres and contingents are theirs to command. Commander Farsight, a renegade Fire Caste commander and T'au hero (depending on one's perspective) was of this rank.
A shas'el can only advance to shas'o after repeated success in the fires of battle, to establish the strategic and tactical brilliance demanded by the Fire Caste for the rank. After the Fire Warrior has gained the shas'o rank, they are allowed to leave the military and retire, perhaps to the paradise worlds of the empire.
Wargear
Fire Warrior Combat Armour
T'au Fire Warriors wear a standard-issue combat uniform, Combat Armour and equipment that is common to all members of the Fire Caste when they are in the field. Their body armour is constructed in two layers. The outer face is a hard, ultra-dense nanocrystalline metal, bonded to an inner layer of high-performance, thermo-set, molecular polyethene. The inner layer of the armour acts as a form of energy-absorbent padding for the dispersal of impact energy from kinetic or directed energy weapons. This helps blunt trauma effects from high-velocity impacts.
The highly advanced materials used in the armour's construction are very resilient to penetration and are quite lightweight compared to more conventional materials used by the Imperium like plasteel. The construction techniques are unknown to the Adeptus Mechanicus as they are forbidden from investigating dangerous alien technology by the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition. The elongated and thickened left shoulder plate acts as an additional protective shield, especially when the Fire Warrior is kneeling with the weapon at his shoulder, covering that side of the warrior's body with extra armour. The Fire Warrior pictured to the right proclaims his allegiance to his species' homeworld of T'au by carrying the symbol of that sept of the T'au Empire on his left shoulder plate and chest.
It is thought that the distinctive domed T'au combat helmet includes many different tactical systems. Communication equipment, night vision sensors, targeting and range-finder information and access to the command communications network for his unit. It is believed that the helmet also includes some form of digital visual relay uplink so that T'au Commanders can see what each of their warriors is experiencing, but this remains uncomfirmed. The markings on the helmet pictured here are rank insignia, indicating that this Fire Warrior is of the rank of shas'ui, broadly equivalent to that of a platoon sergeant in the Astra Militarum.
Pulse Weapon
This T'au Fire Warrior's personal weapon is a Pulse Carbine, which is a short-barelled, more lightweight version of the standard T'au Pulse Rifle, which is issued to scout units and for use during special operations. The carbine sacrifices the Pulse Rifle's better range for greater portability and is especially useful at close quarters.
Like the Pulse Rifle, the Pulse Carbine generates an electromagnetic induction field which is used to propel subatomic particles through the weapon's barrel. The particles react to the field by breaking down into a highly-energetic plasma state, referred to as a pulse. Power is provided by a power cell, which must be replaced after 50 shots are fired. T'au power cells are a standard fit for all T'au weapons.
A Pulse Carbine includes an under-slung Photon Grenade Launcher as standard-issue. The single-shot Photon Grenade Launcher fires a standard-issue Photon Grenade over a short distance. The Pulse Rifle and Pulse Carbine also mounts a remote thermal sight, which combines with the weapon's advanced stabilisers and recoil reduction to make it highly accurate during aimed fire.
Most Fire Warriors' only other weapon besides their Pulse Rifle is a Bonding Knife. Not intended for actual use in combat, this ceremonial knife is a symbol that the warrior and his unit have performed the Ta'lissera ritual and that all the members of the unit are bonded together as one. It is a rite of deep significance to the Fire Caste as they pledge themselves to fight together to the last of their number. A common Fire Caste saying is "Only in death are the bonded parted."
As well as the knife itself, the Fire Warriors of a bonded unit often stencil the symbol of the Bonding Knife on their armour. On the Fire Warrior Shas'ui Ta'she pictured above, it is present on the right thigh guard.
Kit
From a Fire Warrior's belt hangs a sensor unit. The purpose of this device remans unknown to the Imperium, although since it is commonly issued to T'au unit leaders it is believed to be some form of sensor or tracking technology. Hanging from the webbing braces of the pictured Fire Warrior Shas'ui Ta'she above are two pouches intended to hold additional Pulse Rifle power cells and two smaller signal flare pellets. These are believed to be used for visual communication or as a back-up to radio wave communications for marking a T'au unit's location.
The standard-issue webbing belt contains pouches for extra power cells and a container for Photon Grenades. These can be armed and thrown by hand or loaded into the Pulse Rifle or Pulse Carbine's Grenade Launcher. A Photon Grenade is primarily used as a defensive weapon, detonating with a powerful sonic blast and multi-spectrum light that is intended to dazzle and disorientate the enemy. Although non-lethal, the effects can be severe and long-lasting.
Many T'au Fire Warriors are also issued with Electromagentic Pulse (EMP) Grenades. These weapons emit a brief but powerful electromagnetic pulse that overloads electronic circuitry, causing melt-downs and malfunctions. EMP Grenades cannot be fired from the Pulse Rifle or Pulse Carbine's Grenade Launcher and must be thrown manually.
The Fire Warrior's one-piece coveralls are fabricated from a composite nanocular thread, which has a microscopic, super-dense mass of fibres that help prevent projectile punctures and slashing penetrations, while still remaining flexible for easy movement. The material the fatigues are fabricated from is also chemically treated to retard flames and the effects of most toxic gases and chemicals. The fatigues are hard-wearing and suitable for use in most planetary environments. They can be issued in a variety of colours or camouflage patterns.
The Fire Warrior Shas'ui Ta'she pictured above also carries a bulky container believed to be a water evaporator and storage unit. Every T'au infantry unit was issued one for the Taros Campaign in 998.M41 on the Desert World of Taros, to provide an emergency level of water in the arid desert conditions prevalent on that Imperial Mining World. A T'au's physiological ability to resist the effects of dehydration are unknown at present, but are believed by the Adeptus Mechanicus' Magos Biologis to be far in excess of that of Humans, given that the T'au evolved on an arid homeworld.
Standard Issue
T'au technology is among the most advanced of any starfaring species in the galaxy, behind that utilised by the Aeldari and the Necrons. Each Fire Warrior is armed with the Pulse Rifle and a ceremonial T'au Bonding Knife. Basic Fire Warrior armour includes shoulder plates, thigh guards, chest guard, a helmet, and vambraces. The helmet provides infra-red capability, displays remaining ammunition, and the status of the suit of armor as a whole. Fire warriors may also equip themselves with a smaller Pulse Carbine, a weapon that, despite its less-efficient practical combat range compared to the Pulse Rifle, has a slower, but more stable firing rate. In addition to this the Pulse Carbine has an underslung Grenade Launcher, that fires Photon Grenades to disorientate enemies.
Fire Warriors also have the ability to call indirect missile fire from projectile platforms in the form of Sky Ray and Hammerhead gunships, to handle enemy armour. Pathfinders also have hardwired beams that upload battle information to Team Leaders and T'au vehicle commanders, greatly increasing their battle accuracy.
Veteran Fire Warriors of the shas'vre and shas'el ranks are armoured in T'au Battlesuits. These suits of powered armour provide a significant increase in maneuverability thanks to hardwired Jetpacks, while also increasing the flexibility of the trooper due to hardwired fire points. Lighter suits also have the ability to use shields that disrupt the outline of the trooper, effectively making them invisible. With their battlesuits, Fire Warriors can mount heavier weaponry, and stabilisers built into these battlesuits allow this weaponry to be fired while moving. The weaponry of a battlesuit trooper is diverse, allowing them to engage a wide spectrum of enemies, from heavily armoured Adeptus Astartes to the main battle tanks of the Astra Militarum.
As the scientists of the T'au Earth Caste do not consider science and technology to be elements of the sacred like the Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, T'au plasma weaponry is highly advanced. It does not suffer from a tendency to overheat like Imperial plasma weapons, and so can be fired without endangering the user. However, T'au plasma weaponry has a slower rate of fire than its Imperial equivalents.
Jet technology is used extensively by the T'au Empire and this is reflected in the vehicles available to the warriors of the Fire Caste. Devilfish APCs, Sky Rays, Hammerheads, Piranhas, Gun Drones and T'au Battlesuits use this technology as a form of propulsion, allowing teams of Fire Warriors to deploy rapidly and T'au gunships to hover across the battlefield.
Rail Gun technology is also extensively used by the military forces of the T'au Empire. The Hammerhead Gunship's main turret weapon is a Rail Gun, while T'au voidships are equipped with extremely powerful Rail Cannons that can punch through conventional ceramite armour like toilet tissue. The Earth Caste also dabbled with the development of man-portable Rail Gun technology, but field tests exhibited dangerous risks to the user, overheating the Fire Warrior helmet HUD because the power source for these Rail Rifles was too unstable for a hand-held weapon system. Improved Rail Gun technology has allowed T'au Pathfinders the use of Rail Rifles that are used as sniper weapons.
Sources
- Codex: T'au (3rd Edition)
- Codex: T'au Empire (4th Edition)
- War Zone Damocles: Kauyon (7th Edition), pg. 56
- Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 328-333
- Deathwatch: Rites of Battle (RPG), pp. 228-232
- Games Workshop: Specialist Games Catalogue, pg. 101
- Imperial Armour Volume Three - The Taros Campaign, pg. 80-81
- The Art of Warhammer 40,000, pp. 202-209
- Fire Warrior (Novel) by Simon Spurrier
- Games Workshop Website - Fire Warriors Breacher Team
- Games Workshop Website - Fire Warriors Strike Team